Zhou given apartment for taking gold

Chinese teenager Zhou Yang will be able to display her two Olympic short track speed skating gold medals in a new apartment when she returns from Vancouver.

The parents of the 18-year-old 1,500m and 3,000m relay champion have been awarded a new home by the local government in their home city of Changchun on Friday, according to state news agency Xinhua.

"It is a surprise to get the flat that solves our housing problem. Zhou Yang can live with us when she comes home," Zhou's mother Wang Shuying said.

The 94-square-metre apartment in the northern industrial city with two bedrooms and two living rooms was valued at 300,000 yuan (£28,800), Xinhua said.

The news may make up in part for Zhou's disappointment at being disqualified from Friday's final of the 1,000m, which was won for her third gold of the Games by team mate Wang Meng to further bolster China's best ever Winter Olympic medal haul.